On April 15, 2026, the 139th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) grandly opened at the Pazhou Complex in Guangzhou. As China’s longest-running and largest comprehensive international trade event, this year’s Canton Fair covers a total exhibition area of 1.55 million square meters, with 75,700 booths, attracting over 32,000 enterprises to participate, among which about 3,900 are first-time exhibitors. The fair is held in three phases from April 15 to May 5, covering various fields such as electronic appliances, daily consumer goods, and textiles and garments. The watches and glasses exhibition area, where the watch category is located, made its wonderful debut in the second phase (April 23-27), becoming a focal position gathering traditional craftsmanship and smart technology.

Traditional Watches: Classic Renewal, Inheritance of Craftsmanship

In the watches and glasses exhibition area, brands from traditional watch powerhouses such as Switzerland and Germany still attract the most attention. Century-old brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin showcased new products from their classic series, interpreting the “art of time” with exquisite craftsmanship and profound historical heritage. Rolex launched its new Submariner watch, which, while retaining the classic appearance, has upgraded the movement accuracy and waterproof performance, and the gloss and wear resistance of its ceramic bezel have been further improved, attracting numerous collectors and watch enthusiasts to stop and appreciate. Patek Philippe brought a limited-edition complex function watch specially made to commemorate the 180th anniversary of the brand’s founding, integrating multiple complex functions such as perpetual calendar, moon phase display, and chronograph. The dial design adopts retro enamel craftsmanship, and every detail demonstrates the brand’s unique craftsmanship.

In addition to international big names, domestic traditional watch brands also showed strong development momentum at this Canton Fair. As a leading brand in China’s watch industry, Seagull Watch brought its independently developed “tourbillon + perpetual calendar” dual complex function watch. Equipped with Seagull’s self-developed ST8000 movement, this watch perfectly integrates the tourbillon and perpetual calendar functions, breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign brands in the field of high-end complex function watches. The relevant person in charge of Seagull Watch said that in recent years, the brand has continuously increased R&D investment, committed to combining traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, and bringing Chinese watchmaking skills to the world stage.

Smart Watches: Health Empowerment, Ecological Layout

In sharp contrast to the classic elegance of traditional watches, the smart watch exhibition area is full of a sense of technology and the future. With the increasing global consumer attention to healthy lifestyles, smart watches with health monitoring functions have become a popular category at this Canton Fair. Brands such as Dreame, Huawei, and Xiaomi have launched their newly developed smart watch products, covering a variety of medical-grade health functions such as blood glucose monitoring, blood pressure monitoring, and emotional stress analysis.

Dreame’s AI smart blood pressure watch is equipped with high-precision sensors and advanced AI algorithms, enabling 24-hour continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, and the data accuracy has been verified by professional medical institutions. The watch also supports real-time synchronization with mobile phone APPs, allowing users to check their blood pressure change trends at any time and receive personalized health advice. On the first day of the exhibition, Dreame’s exhibition area attracted hundreds of professional merchants from Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions to visit and negotiate, and the on-site signing amount exceeded one million yuan. The person in charge of Dreame said that in the future, the brand will continue to deepen the field of AI health wearables, build a full ecological health hardware matrix from smart rings to smart watches, and provide users with a “non-sense health” future lifestyle.

Huawei’s new Watch 5 Pro smart watch has achieved new breakthroughs in health monitoring functions. The watch has added continuous monitoring functions for body temperature and blood oxygen saturation, which can detect abnormal conditions of the user’s body in a timely manner and issue warnings. At the same time, the Watch 5 Pro also supports satellite communication functions, enabling emergency calls in areas without signal coverage, escorting users’ safety. Xiaomi exhibited its Watch S5 smart watch focusing on sports health, equipped with professional sports sensors, supporting more than 150 sports modes, which can accurately record users’ sports data and provide scientific sports guidance.

Industry Trends: Diversified Integration, Breaking through Innovation

The wonderful presentation of the watch category at this Canton Fair also reflects the current development trends of the global watch industry. On the one hand, while adhering to classics, traditional watch brands are constantly seeking innovative breakthroughs, meeting consumers’ increasingly diversified aesthetic needs through material upgrades, function optimization and design innovation. On the other hand, smart watch brands continue to make efforts in health functions and ecological layout, deeply integrating AI technology with health monitoring to create a more intelligent and personalized wearing experience.

Industry experts said that the watch industry will show a development trend of integration between traditional and smart in the future. Traditional watch brands may introduce smart modules to enhance the technological content of their products; smart watch brands may draw on the design concepts of traditional watches to improve the quality and fashion sense of their products. At the same time, as consumers’ demand for personalized customization continues to increase, watch brands will pay more attention to user participation and personalized services, providing consumers with exclusive watch customization solutions.

As an important window for China’s opening up, the Canton Fair provides a high-quality platform for global watch brands to showcase themselves and expand their markets. The successful holding of the watch category at this Canton Fair has not only promoted exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign watch enterprises, but also injected new vitality into the development of the global watch industry. Guided by the exhibition theme of “New, Green, Smart”, the watch industry is moving towards a more diversified, intelligent and high-quality direction, and the future is worth looking forward to.